White House raps Kerry for remarks on Iraq
The White House is accusing John Kerry of troop-bashing, after a comment the Massachusetts senator made to college students in California.
In a speech yesterday at Pasadena City College, Kerry said students can do well if they study hard and make an effort to be smart. Those who don’t – Kerry said – “get stuck in Iraq”.
White House spokesman Tony Snow today said Kerry owed an apology not only to those who were serving, but also to the families of those who had given their lives in Iraq. Snow called it an “absolute insult”.
But the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee fired back, saying it was the president and his administration who owed US troops an apology because “they misled America into war”.
Referring to Snow, Kerry said he wasn’t going to be lectured by a “stuffed suit White House mouthpiece”.
Republican Senator John McCain – who like Kerry is a decorated Vietnam veteran - also called on the Massachusetts Democrat to apologise to US troops.
